Late Early
by FieldOfEternalSnow
Summary: The reason why Kakashi is always late and Iruka is always early and two peoples efforts to fix the problem. KakaIru Rating changed to T for later chapters just to be on the safe side.
1. Why Kakashi is always late

**I don't own any of the characters.  
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**And this has Yaoi.. nothing serious just a man loving a man but if you don't like it don't read it and if you do then don't complain.**

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Why Kakashi is always late

Shortly after Kakashi started training team 7 he also started showing up very late for their training appointments. Although it is true that Kakashi started his nasty habit of being late after Obito died he had never the less never been that late before. In the old days Kakashi would spend about an hour at the memorial stone or lazily make his way to any appointments he had while reading Itcha Itcha novels but lately his tardiness had taken a turn for the worse following a new hobby of his. Iruka stalk… watching.

At first Kakashi had been rather ignorant and sometimes quite annoyed at how much his new students talked about their old sensei but soon the ignorance turned into curiosity and Kakashi decided to see what all the fuss was about with this Iruka chuunin that made him seem more interesting to his students than he himself. Because honestly he was the copy Nin for kami's sake and his students didn't even seem to care! It was all Iruka this and Iruka that.

When he finally went around to the academy to check him out he was pleasantly surprised, Iruka turned out to be that hot shy guy who he loved to torment at the mission desk, those blushes should be illegal. Soon he started to see what everyone else seemed to have seen in the chuunin and eventually more than that. Iruka wasn't just hot and shy, he was a very kind and yet strict teacher, he had a good sense of humor, very good manners and man could that guy be any cuter when he got mad. Kakashi had a very hard time controlling the urge to either drop kick him and ravish him on the spot or simply just pinch him on the cheek and coo at him when he snapped at him before the chuunin exams, of course being who he is the urge to make him even angrier and to deepen the blush took over.

After that incident there was no turning back and Kakashi spent an awful lot of time watching over Iruka. Of course he did this purely out of concern for the man, you never knew when a ninja could be in danger... even once who rarely went out of the village and spent most of their time at the academy, the mission desk or stuffing Naruto with ramen.. the dangers were endless.

Kakashi was highly suspicious of that one little student who always got such good marks on his tests, that kid was way too smart for that age and could therefore be a spy (Kakashi had just yet to find a way to figure out how he was doing it because he had already tried to dispel the henge or gengitsu and it hadn't worked). Genma could accidentally sting Iruka with his senbon needle while they worked at the mission desk together (which was the reason Genma found himself running out of senbon needles most of the time) and Naruto could eat Iruka into bankruptcy (which might be the reason Naruto got a lot of hard, useless and time consuming missions) . So it was purely out of concern that Kakashi stalk... watched over Iruka.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the little kids father was downright flirting with HIS Iruka on parent meetings, Genma was all but molesting HIS Iruka the whole day at the mission desk and Naruto hugged HIS Iruka a bit too much, not to mention that the father and daughter that owned the ramen stand were just a tiny bit too friendly.

Kakashi finally realized though that all this had to stop because people were starting to question his actions a bit. Asuma even mentioned that he spent quite some time in the mission room when he didn't have a reason to and Iruka had started acting like he thought someone was following him around all the time... Kakashi didn't know if he should be annoyed or proud of the guy for sensing him, he was glad that Iruka hadn't figured out who it was though.

Kakashi wasn't willing to give up watching Iruka all together though and therefore found the perfect solution. Every night from 11pm when Iruka went to sleep and until around 3am Kakashi would sit outside his window and watch him sleep. If Iruka's blushes should be illegal then the sight of him sleeping should be a sin. Kakashi then got home around 3:20am and fell asleep, after a long night he would then oversleep which caused him to be late at the memorial stone and even later for his appointments.

And thus Kakashi was always really late.


	2. Why Iruka is always early

**Why Iruka is always early**

Although Iruka is well known for always being on time it wasn't always so.

When he was younger he never seemed to be on time for anything and although it got gradually better when he grew up people were a bit surprised when around the time he hit 20 he started to be really early every morning at the academy and even on weekend mission desk duty, which seemed to have been the only time that his improved punctuality hadn't reached.

No one knew that Iruka's new and improved timing was a direct result of his now only hobby, Kakashi stalking.

Iruka did not like lying, not even to himself, and had therefore stopped trying to describe his hobby as something else than it was. Iruka was stalking Kakashi and had been ever since he accidentally walked into his hospital room when he was visiting Anko. Of course Iruka knew who he was, everyone did, and Iruka had had a small crush on the guy for some time, who didn't? The guy was incredibly hot. Iruka saw a whole new side of him that day though and his small crush soon changed into love for the guy. He had looked so incredibly innocent and even vulnerable and when Iruka sat down next to him his sleep, that up until then had been a bit restless, seemed to become more peaceful.

After that incident Iruka became restless. He wanted to get to know the guy but was too shy to initiate anything, Jounin and chuunin rarely socialized and Kakashi was even too cool and unapproachable for most Jounins. He would probably have no interest in Iruka what so ever, not that anything seemed to interest the guy anyway apart from those orange books he was always reading. Iruka also realized that if he gave into his urge to follow his obsession everywhere Kakashi would definitely find out, he wasn't called a genius for nothing. So Iruka had started watching him when he was asleep but soon found out that it wasn't enough.

Therefore Iruka came up with various ways to bump into the Jounin. He did his best to be working in the mission office every time Kakashi was picking up a mission or handing in a report. Hung or walked around places the Jounin was known to pass through. Although he'd had to stop that awhile ago, the Jounin seemed to have changed his walking routes and Iruka had the nagging feeling someone was watching him where ever he went. Iruka even went so far as to place team 7 as Kakashi's students. It was the perfect plan, he would be able to run into the team anytime and just say that he was looking for Naruto. Maybe he might even be able to talk to the guy by pretending to want to know how Naruto was coming along.. not that he didn't honestly want to know. So you could imagine the near panic attack that Iruka had when he found out that Kakashi had never in his life passed a genin squad. Thankfully that all worked out though. Iruka stuffed Naruto with ramen for a whole month afterwards out of sheer joy.. and also to to you know.. give him the third degree on his new sensei.

Soon Iruka realized though that he couldn't keep this up. He would like to be able to say that he had come to that conclusion on his own but supposed he had to admit that it was Genma's "So when are you going to stop stalking the guy and just ask him out?" question that made him realize it, of course someone had been bound to notice after a few years of him stalking the guy.

He couldn't give it up completely though so Iruka did the only thing he could do. He continued on with his night visits. He woke up around 3am in the morning, got ready for his day and then went over to Kakashi's house, sat outside his window and watched him sleep. He had been thinking about doing it in the evenings at the beginning and into the night but had decided against it, if the man was still awake when he got there he would surely notice Iruka outside his window. Kakashi always seemed to sleep more peacefully after Iruka got there and since Iruka couldn't be with him when he was awake he settled for this small thing. He would watch over the man he loved every night to ease his sleep.

But since Iruka didn't want people to see from where he was coming from in the mornings he left Kakashi's place before most people got up and headed for the academy or the mission room.

And thus Iruka was always early.


	3. Why the hokage is always up at 3am

This third chapter was originally supposed to go with the first two but I decided to not publish it until I started working on extending this story, that way I could leave it as a finished 2 shot for an unknown amount of time without feeling bad about not updating the story... The story will start for real in the next chapter, these first 3 pages are more of an intro.

**ATTENTION Chapter 2 (Why Iruka is always late) has been re-done and extended a bit, it was a bit lacking compared to the first one so I added a few things.**

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**Why the hokage is always up at 3am.**

In the hokage's office in the village hidden in the leaf sat a woman. Hunched over mountains of paperwork, scribbling frantically, stamping papers and occasionally complaining and shouting at her assistant.

It was the Fifth Hokage of Konoha.

The raging storm beating the windows of her office reflected her mood perfectly.

She was in fact royally pissed off.

She was pulling an all nighter, not by her choice, Shizune was in fact standing over her with a big scowl. Tsunade was pissed because Shizune kept taking her sake away, she was running out of sake from her secret stashes. Shizune was pissed because the hokage kept acting like a big baby... and the sake bottles that kept magically showing up in Tsunade's hands didn't help.

At around 2 am Tsunade had enough. As soon as Shizune went outside to file away some papers she slipped away to find a place to hide, drink sake and hopefully get a chance to snooze a little bit. With that in mind she quickly made her way to the mission office, it had everything she needed. A comfy couch in the back room to sit on and sip sake or take a nap, no assistant harassing you and most importantly, someone working at the mission desk who could hopefully be persuaded to cover for her if said assistant came looking. She was in luck, Genma was sitting at the desk and he was always easily persuaded.. or threatened.

Genma wasn't feeling the same luck. He was stuck on night watch at the mission office, the worst possible shift because no one in their right mind bothered to hand in their mission reports during the night and those who did.. well they tended to be not in their right minds and quite often bloody, filthy and quite beaten up.. and the same could be said about the reports they were handing in.

If Tsunade was there looking hassled and shifty there was not a doubt in his mind that Shizune wouldn't be far behind. Not in a good mood most likely.

"Kami this certainly reminds me of old times" He mumbled to himself.

"What do you mean by that Shiranui – san." Genma looked up at the Hokage standing by the door to the back room.

"The third came in here almost every single night at around 3 am, went into that room for about 20 minutes and then, to the best of my knowledge, just went back home."

"Really now." That sparked Tsunade's curiosity. "Any idea what he was doing?"

"Not a single one. I looked in on him once, he was just sitting on the couch, smoking his pipe and smiling that all knowing smile of his while looking out the window. As far as I know that's all he did in there."

"Huh." Was Tsunade's smart reply. "Every night?"

"More or less, sometimes he wouldn't come in here for a few days or a few weeks but then he would be back to the same routine. I looked into it once when he didn't show up but couldn't find anything worth coming in here for at 3 am. Of course no one would ever say this out loud but most people thought he was just going a bit strange in the head."

"How much you wanna bet that he wasn't going strange in the head?" Tsunade might be a legendary sucker but she had a funny feeling luck would be on her side tonight. She'd known her sensei quite well and it would have been a cold day in hell before that man would have gone strange in the head.

And so Tsunade and Genma found themselves sitting in the mission's office back room staring out the window. One hoping to find something out of the ordinary and the other wishing they didn't. The moment the clock hit 3 a figure could be seen running across the rooftops.

Tsunade smiled. "Kakashi wasn't scheduled to be on duty tonight was he?"

"Not to my knowledge no."

"I wonder where he's been in the freezing cold all night then. A bit strange don't you think."

"That doesn't mean anything, I hardly think Kakashi does it every night and why on earth would the Third come in here every night to watch that?"

Tsunade was about to answer when another figure could be seen outside in the storm, running almost the exact same route as the former one."

"Well, well. I wonder where Iruka is going this late, he's not supposed to be on duty either is he?" Tsunade was smirking now.

"I don't think so no, he has a mission office shift quite early tomorrow... and that doesn't mean anything either, it's probably just a one night thing!"

Five nights later Genma had to admit defeat. Every single night around 3 am Kakashi would be seen running the same route across the rooftops and some 15 to 30 minutes later Iruka would follow.

And so the mystery of why the Sandaime was always up at 3 am was finally solved... and Genma learned why he should never make a bet with the Hokage.


	4. Why Genma is always in the picture

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It was a fine afternoon in Konoha village. The sky was a perfect blue, the combination of the sun and the light breeze was just right to make the perfect warmth and all in all the day couldn't be more perfect.

"_Perfect"_ Genma muttered to himself, but he wasn't referring to the weather. He was too busy cursing Tsunade all the way down to the Hokage tower to notice such trivial things. He was in fact referring to the situation he was in now.

"Just fucking perfect."

Genma growled as he kicked an empty can in the road.. it didn't make him feel better like he had hoped.

"Why'd she have to make it into a mission! If it was just a bet I wouldn't have minded failing or not doing it but a mission! I can't fail a mission.."

Genma sidestepped some kids running down the street.

"..failing a mission goes in your file. People laugh at you for failing a bet or screwing up what you were supposed to do if you failed the bet but they don't laugh if you fail a mission no matter how trivial it was, mission failure is mission failure and people look down on failures."

Genma bumped into someone but was too caught up in his thoughts to notice it, he didn't notice the glare he got either.

"But most importantly did she have to write it in the fucking mission report as well! It's going to go into my record!!"

Genma thought about how the Hokage had smirked while handing him the mission scroll.

"Of all the things she could have come up with she had to make me do that one."

Genma chewed his senbon a little harder.

"She just had to make me a _matchmaker_ between those two!"

Genma bit down so hard on the senbon in his mouth that he managed to bend it.

"Fuck-ing Perf-ect!"

After a failed attempt to find another one on him he got even more annoyed and marched faster to the hokage tower where he could hopefully get more.

"And this better be the fucking last time I re-stock my senbons"

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_Target 1_. When Genma walked into the mission office for his shift Iruka was already there, like always.

_Target 2._ Kakashi was at the moment handing Iruka the mission report he should have handed in 2 days ago, like always.

Kakashi was making Iruka blush with some lewd innuendo or pissing him off and Iruka was trying not to have a heart attack from all the mixed emotions and stammering like a blushing schoolgirl, again like always.

Genma was a bit surprised that he hadn't noticed that the two of them liked each other before. He was pretty good friends with both of them and knew them quite well but when he thought about it he'd never really paid much attention to how they interacted with one another. They were showing all the signs of a_wkward-teenagers-in-love_, _I-like-you-but-do-you-like-me?_ and _I-can-handle-almost-any-situation,-kill-and-maim-enemies-or-teach-little-hellions-on-crack-but-as-soon-as-I'm-in-the-same-room-as-you-my-brain-turns-to-mush-and-I-act-like-a-complete-idiot._

Genma just realized his mission might be harder than he'd thought at first.

On one hand he had Iruka. To people who didn't really know the guy he was good manners and principals personified. An all in all nice guy who worked hard for the village, was amazingly good with children and wouldn't hurt a fly. But Genma knew he had a wicked and sometimes downright evil sense of humor and enough talent to reach jounin easily, he just never showed it to anyone but his friends.

And on the other hand he had Kakashi. The guy people knew as a very obvious pervert who was always late, never showed an interest in anything but his books and was one of the best Ninjas Konoha had. Genma also knew that underneath that Kakashi was a very caring and quite sensitive person who just put up a hard front because he actually got nervous in social situations and had a hard time dealing with people. They tended to teach geniuses and prodigies more killing and fighting than social interactions and manners.

Two people who acted and looked like polar opposites but were in fact very much alike underneath it all.

So Genma just had to find some way to get them to trust each other well enough to drop their act, realize they were meant to be together and get them to proclaim their undying love for one another. That should be about as easy as to get Sasuke to come skipping back through the gates of Konoha wearing a pink dress, holding his brothers hand, proclaiming that he found god and realized the errors of his ways and then proceed to hug all his friends crying while telling them how much he missed them.

'_Absolutely fucking Perfect._'

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Genma sat down next to Iruka when Kakashi was gone. He was beginning to form a plan and decided to just get right to the point with each of them. It wouldn't be easy to get Kakashi and Iruka to trust each other but they both trusted Genma so if he got them to open up to him then maybe he could get some information that could help him bring the two together.

"So Iruka... you really like Kakashi huh?"

"What!" Iruka snapped around to look at his co worker. "N..no I d-don't"

Genma often wondered if blushing so much hurt.

"Look, Iruka. I know I tease you mercilessly, and believe me I'll tease you about this too, but I don't enjoy seeing a friend of mine miserable and this has been going on how long now?"

"I-is it that obvious" Iruka did indeed look miserable.

"Yeah it is, but don't worry about it. Kakashi's a friend of mine as well so I'll help you out alright. Just leave it to me and he'll be head over heels for you in no time."

After his shift Genma found Kakashi in one of his usual places, sitting in a tree reading his books. Genma jumped up to the branch next to his and waited for his friend to finish the chapter he was on. Interrupting Kakashi's reading on his day off was like waking Tsunade up from a nap.. dangerous to your health.

Five minutes later Kakashi spoke.

"Was there something you needed Genma." Kakashi glanced up to look at one of the few people he called friend.

"Yeah.. When are you going to stop being a coward and ask Iruka out on a date?"

There it was, the hidden glint of panic in the sole visible eye that very few people knew to look for. Kakashi's answer was cool as ever though.

"Maaahh.. I don't know what your on about, I'm not interested in him that way."

"Oh please don't give me that crap, I know you. It might not be obvious to a lot of people but your basically raping him with that eye of yours every time you see him and when you screw up and really manage to upset him you look like a kicked puppy. So when are you going to ask him?"

"Uhm... I don't know." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't know how to ask people out."

"What are you talking about, you go on lots of dates."

"Weeell I'm usually the one that gets asked out... and it's more of a sex thing than a date thing.."

"Ah, I see." '_just like planned_' "Well don't worry about a thing my friend. Iruka is a very good friend of mine too so I'll see what I can do."

"Great, I owe you one."

When Kakashi realized Genma wasn't leaving he glanced back up.

"Was there anything else you wanted"

"Yeah. Stop stealing my fucking senbons you asshole or I'll tell Iruka all your stupid flaws not to mention that your a thief." And with that Genma teleported himself to the Hokage tower.

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"Of all the important missions going on in this village she wants a daily report on _this_ one." Genma grumbled while he made his way from Tsunade's office. "I didn't know those two's love-life was more important than capturing Akatsuki or something like that."

"Well at least she went along with my idea. My mission should end successfully quite soon."

And with that Genma lazily strolled home thinking about how well his mission would go.

If only he knew how wrong he was...

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	5. Plan A

**Updates might go slowly after this chapter, I have a ton of school work I need to take care of and finals are coming up soon. I'll do my best though.**

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**Plan A: Mission sleep over**

**Step 1:** _Make Iruka's apartment inhabitable._

Genma walked casually up the front wall of Iruka's apartment complex. Any attempt at stealth would be immediately noticed in a village full of ninjas, especially if said person was sneaking around in the middle of the night, so even though Genma was just about to wreck Iruka's apartment no one would pay attention to him or mention him being there later on as long as he wasn't trying to hide the fact that he actually was there. The only trouble he might be getting was the Copy ninja he now knew would probably be hanging around somewhere near the place.. most likely in the tree that was so conveniently situated right outside Iruka's bedroom window on the other side of the complex.

When he finally reached the right floor he quietly let himself in through Iruka's kitchen window and then bent down and opened the cupboards under Iruka's sink. At the back of one of the water pipes in there he put a small note with some intricate seals and then slowly poured some chakra into it. Having done that Genma quickly made his way out of the house and up to the roof where he swiftly teleported himself home. If anyone had been tracing his chakra signature all they would have noticed was a ninja walking up the wall, momentarily stopping by a friends window and then continuing on his way. Something that wasn't so uncommon in the village.

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Iruka wasn't in a very good mood. He'd woken up like most other times at around 3 am to head over to Kakashi's place but when he was getting ready for his day disaster had struck. The only warning he got when he stepped into the shower was a faint popping sound before the shower, the bathroom sink and the kitchen sink all basically exploded due to too much water pressure and Iruka's apartment was flooded in no time. When Iruka finally managed to stop the water flow 2 hours had already gone by and he'd then had to spend another hour trying his best to clean up his place which hadn't gone very well.

He was now making his way to the hokage tower to fill in a report about it and hopefully find either Kotetsu and Izumo or Genma to see if they would be willing to let him stay for a day or two until his place was all cleaned up. He'd also have to get a new uniform there since all of his, including the one he was wearing, were soaked at the moment.

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**Step 2:**_ Force Kakashi to let Iruka stay at his place._

Kakashi was currently standing outside Tsunade's office with Genma waiting for the Hokage to have enough time to deal with them. He couldn't quite understand why the Hokage had sent for them so urgently and then told them to wait outside because she was busy, he didn't think much about it though and just pulled his book out and started reading.

Genma was quite happy, his plan was coming along perfectly. Iruka should be showing up soon enough with his damage report and Kakashi wasn't using his genius brain to figure out exactly why the Hokage wasn't seeing them even though Genma had literally dragged him out of bed and straight to the tower saying the Hokage had ordered them to come right away. As expected Iruka arrived about 10 minutes later.

"Well hello there Iruka–Sensei. My what happened to you? you look like you just took a swim in your clothes."

This got Kakashi's attention and he glanced over the rim of his book. Sure enough there was Iruka looking delightfully flustered and his wet uniform was clinging rather nicely to his muscular body in Kakashi's opinion.

"Oh, yeah.. The water system in my apartment gave out and I spent all morning cleaning up the flood. I'm actually really glad I ran into you. They're saying I can't stay at my apartment for a week or so while they are fixing it and I was wondering if I could stay at your place?"

Genma pointedly ignored the low growling he heard coming from Kakashi, along with the subtle killing intend and death glare that was shot in his direction.

"Oh that's horrible to hear. I'm really sorry but you won't be able to stay in my apartment.. But Kakashi here would probably be more than happy to let you stay with him, wouldn't you Kakashi? We wouldn't want Iruka sleeping in the streets now would we?"

Kakashi and Iruka both looked at Genma blankly. Iruka was the first to recover, he turned beat read and started to stammer.

"Eh.. w-well I'm sure K-Kakashi-San has better things to do than housing me. I-I'll just find Izumo and Kotetsu and see if they can help me out"

And of course seeing this Kakashi jumped into action. "Oh no it's no trouble at all Iruka-_Sensei,_ you're more than welcome to stay at my place. It's a bit small but I'm sure I can find a space for you _somewhere._"

"Alright that's settled then." Genma clasped his hands together grinning. "Now why don't the two of you go and get Iruka settled in to your place before Kakashi has to train his little brats."

"But we're still waiting for the Hokage.." Kakashi's genius brain was suddenly realizing just what he had gotten himself into. He was quite happy with the opportunity to have Iruka stay at his place and he really did enjoy teasing the guy but the chuunin didn't seem to like that very much and Kakashi honestly didn't know what else to do. Every time he tried to talk to the guy he would either get nervous and screw it up or intentionally provoke the man to get some kind of reaction.

"Oh don't worry about it, I'll wait for her and see what she wants and then I'll let you know. You just go on ahead."

"W-well I have to hand in my report and get a new uniform too" Iruka was just about ready to faint. He would be spending a whole week in Kakashi's apartment. Alone, in a little apartment, with the man he loved. He just knew he was going to screw it up and make an ass of himself somehow.

"That's alright I'll take the report for you." Genma quickly snatched the report from Iruka's hands and started waving them away with it "Now just go already I'll handle everything"

"But what about my uniform"

"Don't worry Iruka-kun I'm sure I can find something _nice_ for you to wear at my place"

Iruka was quite sure the look in Kakashi's eye was a smirk. Genma on the other hand could see the uncertainty and nervousness underneath it.

After Genma had watched Kakashi awkwardly lead the furiously blushing Iruka away he turned on his heal and walked into Tsunade's office to let her know how well the mission was going. They'd surely start dating before the week was over if they would be spending it in Kakashi's tiny 1 room apartment.

Little did he know that _**Step 3: **____They start dating and live happily ever after.__ Would fail so soon._

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"You... You tried to cook didn't you?"

Genma could only stare in disbelief at what he was seeing. Standing in front of him on his doorstep was Iruka, covered in patches of white, _'Is that flour?'_ black _'and are those ashes?' _and gray where the two of them mixed, holding a pillow and a blanket with a very guilty yet sheepish look on his face.

That look that says I did something wrong, but it honestly wasn't my fault, who knew dynamite blew up if you lit the fuse.

"Weeelll.. no not exactly, you see.. what happened was.."

'_Is that an egg in his hair?' _"You tried to **bake?**"

Iruka's shoulders slumped "Yes"

"You made a mess" It wasn't a question.

"I made a mess" Iruka's head dropped down.

"And he kicked you out?" Genma wearily eyed the pillow and blanket in Iruka's hands.

"He kicked me out" Iruka mumbled into his chest.

Genma slapped his face in annoyance. "Do I even want to know what happened? On second thought do I even want to know what was going through your head! You know you can't cook, have you forgotten what happened when your sensei tried to teach you?? What on earth **were** you thinking?"

"Well.. you see I.. I just wanted to do something nice for him, since he was letting me stay and all.. you know, to say thank you.. and I thought it would be nice if I baked him a cake or something... and it really wasn't my fault.. the recipe wasn't very clear.. and honestly who makes an oven that can set things on fire anyway.. I'm not quite sure how the explosion happened but I'm sure I didn't do that.. and I'm sure it wouldn't have been so messy if he had a bigger place, I mean a guy with his salary should be able to afford an apartment where the kitchen isn't almost inside his bedroom.. So he kind of threw me out but not really because he can't stay there either.."

Genma decided to stop Iruka's mile a minute rant at that point.

"You **blew up **his kitchen! Why didn't you just get him a box of chocolates or some flowers or something.. or just buy him a cake.. or just.. just. "Genma sighed in defeat. "Just get inside.. and take a shower... and don't go near my kitchen until I get back"

"I guess this really isn't my day, first my apartment floods and then I blow up a kitchen.. He probably hates me now."

"Don't worry about it, I'll see what I can do."

'_I think it's not my day either, it's going to take a lot of work to get them together now_.. _Well.. I guess I'll have to go on to plan B then.._'

******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

******2 Hours earlier.**

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Iruka just got back from the market. He'd spent the rest of the morning in either awkward silence or blushing furiously over Kakashi's remarks. He held back on the outbursts though, because he really didn't want to snap at the guy since he had so graciously offered him to stay at his place and he really wanted to make a good impression as well.

It was now noon and Iruka had decided to pay Kakashi back for his hospitality by baking him a cake while he was out training team 7. It was one of the simpler recipes he'd found in the cook book he bought, his mother always told him that the way to a mans heart was through his stomach, or something like that and since Iruka couldn't cook at all he decided to bake. How hard could it be.

Well Iruka got the ingredients mixed up without making too much of a mess.._ '____Alright I won't lie, the place looks like a hundred Naruto shadow clones just went on a rampage in here but I'll clean it up as soon as the cake's in the oven__' _He thought to himself

Iruka then looked at the oven, a little confused as to how it worked. He fiddled with some of the buttons until the light went on inside it._ '____Ah there we go__' _He turned his attention back to the cook book and read on._ '____Alright put the dough in a form and then put it in the oven.. now where did I put that baking form__' _Iruka put the cookbook down on top of the stove and went to search the shopping bags for the baking form he had gotten at the market, not knowing that in his attempt to turn the oven on he had actually turned the stove on as well.

Iruka only realized something was wrong when he started smelling smoke, when he turned around and saw what was happening he had just enough time to duck underneath Kakashi's bed before the fire spread to his weapons pouch, which was lying on the counter not so far away, and set of some minor explosion notes he had there. Iruka then, mostly due to panic, decided it would be best to stop the fire with a well performed water Jutsu. Which, although stopping the fire, made the damage even worse.

******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

******Back to the present**

******.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Kakashi really didn't know what he had done to deserve this, really he didn't. He must have done something horribly, horribly wrong in a previous life for karma to hit him back so hard. Surely teasing Iruka and slightly torturing his students from time to time wasn't enough for this to happen.

It wasn't enough that Kakashi was now standing in his wet, scorched and over all sticky and messy room _'Are those eggs on my bed?'_

He was in fact standing in his tiny wet, scorched and over all sticky and messy room with one green and orange clad jounin trying his best to ignore both and hopefully escape to some inner world where cute little chuunins didn't blow up your kitchen and green beasts didn't exist... specially not green beasts who wanted to help! _'And is that butter on my ceiling?'_

"... and my dear Eternal Rival you must Escape out of this dark cave of Doom that was once your Happy Home and come live with me to restore the Springtime of your Youth while your Beautiful Palace is being restored to it's former Glory.."

Kakashi nearly shouted with joy and hugged Genma when he jumped through his window during Gai's speech. Of course he didn't show it on the outside but Genma saw the equivalent of it in Kakashi's eye.

"Maahh sorry Gai but Genma here already offered me a place to stay, isn't that right Genma?"

Kakashi's eye now shone with sheer desperation and a look that clearly said you owe me big time because it was your fault Iruka was here in the first place. Genma really found it amazing how much Kakashi could manage to display with just one eye.

"Ah, that's right. Although Iruka will be staying with me as well so if you'd like more space or something I wouldn't take offense if you decided to stay with Gai instead." Genma decided to at least let Kakashi choose if he wanted to stay with the guy who ruined his apartment or not, even if the other choice was Gai.

Kakashi looked between Gai and Genma for a few seconds. '_Stay with Genma and the cute little chuunin, _who ruined my kitchen a voice interrupted, _in a small apartment where close interaction is a 100 percent certainty and I can hopefully A) tease him, B) find out more about him C) get him to fall for me and into my bed or D) all of the above... or stay with Gai in his small apartment where close interaction is also a 100 percent certainty and will most likely involve A) heavy training, B) lots of challenges, C) hanging out with his little clone or D) all of the above...'_

"Oh no that's perfectly fine, we were getting along wonderfully here anyways" which was a complete lie since he'd only manage to upset the guy all morning but he'd do anything to get out of staying with Gai, plus it would be a lot better to stay with Iruka if Genma was there.. Genma seemed to know what was appropriate or not in social situations. Of course Gai was the only one in the room who did not realize this, so while Genma rolled his eyes Gai proclaimed loudly.

"Ahh my Worthy Opponent has found a new Precious Person to let into his Passionate and Youthful heart. May you and your new friend Iruka-Sensei enjoy the Springtime of your Youth together with Genma, I will not stand in the way of such Passionate Joyful times between the three of you."

"Uh yeah.." Genma blinked a few times _'Is that a sunset behind Gai where a chocolate splattered wall was earlier'_

He knew Gai meant it in a very platonic way but, seeing as he was very much like Kakashi in the sense that he had a very perverted humor and loved to twist other peoples words around, his mind got stuck on the words _springtime of their youth_ and _passionate__ joyful times_ between the three of them. And Genma certainly did not need _that_ mental picture in his head.

"Anyway, we better be going then Kakashi. I spoke with Tsunade after you left and we have to leave for a mission at 6 am tomorrow so we better use the" Genma glance at the sun. _'around 2pm'_ "16 hours we have until then to get ready for it, ne?"

And with that they both teleported out of the room leaving Gai standing there in the clutter with manly tears streaming down his face.

* * *

**Thank you for reading :)**


	6. Plan B

**Well.. I haven't updated this in ages... said I was going to work on this alongside Savior but then I got so stuck in that story I just couldn't get my mind to focus on this one long enough to get even one sentence down. **

**I definitely have NOT given up on this story.. It just might take some time for me to update it... Sorry to all you out there who are waiting for this story.**

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**Plan B: Mission, Partners in Trouble.**

**Step 1:** _Get Kakashi and Iruka on a mission together._

Genma was making his way to the gate. His plan was going along very well, both Kakashi and Iruka had left the house around the same time and would hopefully have already met up again by the gate. Genma and Kakashi were scheduled to leave at 6 am so naturally Genma had made sure that Iruka was sent to the gate at 9 am. He was enormously relieved that he would be bailing on them on this mission. Spending the night in the same house as those two had been quite enough hassle for Genma to last him a lifetime. Personally he would choose a torture session with Ibiki over doing that again. He'd been caught in the middle of awkward glances, failed attempts of communications, mood swings (on both ends) and the atmosphere was filled with tension thick enough to slice with a kunai. Plus having a small apartment meant they had to share a room, which meant Genma had to sleep between the two lovestruck idiots, well try to sleep. The tension and stolen glances that were going on all through the night had made that pretty hard.

When the gate came into view Genma spotted both of his targets. **  
Target 1**, Iruka, was going through some paperwork with Izumo and Kotetsu. The look of frustration on all of them was clearly visible, Genma sincerely hoped none of them would ever figure out just who it was who screwed up their paperwork. **  
Target 2**, Kakashi, was leaning on the gate reading his book as usual.

Alright this was going to be a piece of cake.

Genma walked briskly up to Kakashi, chewing one of his new senbons. He was so going to get Kakashi back for that stunt later. He hated having to get new senbons, they somehow just didn't feel right. When Genma came closer to Kakashi he noticed something everyone else were too busy to see. Kakashi did indeed look like he always did. He looked like laziness incarnated with a tiny bit of pervertedness thrown into the mix. But if you actually looked past the cover of his little orange book you would see that he wasn't actually reading it. And if you followed the direction of his eye you would also notice that it was looking directly at a certain Chuunin schoolteacher. And if you were as perceptual as Genma you would notice just what part of said teacher the pervert was looking at.

"Now I'm really, really glad I'm bailing on this mission." Genma grumbled before he put on a smirk and walked the rest of the way to his so called mission partner.

"Hey, Aoba hasn't shown up yet?"

Kakashi glanced over to him. "Uhh... no, was he supposed to?"

"Yeah, this is a three man mission. Aoba was supposed to go with us.. I thought I told you that already."

"No you didn't." Kakashi looked at his partner thoughtfully. "You haven't really told me anything."

"Well now I have, so we should wait for him a little bit longer." Genma made a show of looking restless, glancing at the clock every few minutes and chewing on his senbon more noticeably. Truthfully Aoba had never even been contacted to go on the mission, since the mission was really just one big hoax, and would therefore not be showing up at all.

Unknown to Iruka he now had two higher ranking ninjas spying on him but if he'd known he probably wouldn't have cared less. He was too busy cursing some unknown idiot for screwing up a weeks worth of paperwork. He got momentarily distracted by a loud sneeze nearby but then kept on working.

After about 10 minutes Genma got bored of the act and turned to his mission partner. "Well looks like Aoba's going to be a no show and we really, really have to get going. We need to find someone else to come with us fast." Genma was about to nonchalantly wander over to Iruka when Kakashi nearly ruined his plans.

"Alright. We can get Raidou, he just came in through the gate." Kakashi raised his hand up and was about to call Raidou to get his attention when Genma grabbed him.

"NO!... I mean.. Raidou's very busy. He's just come back from a very looong mission and he'll have to report and recuperate and all that shit. Plus we only need like a chuunin or something. We really need to find someone else. Come on." Genma started to drag Kakashi closer to the watch house where the chuunins were working but seeing how it was very hard to drag Kakashi anywhere he wasn't too thrilled to go he gave up half way and just went alone.

"Iruka-Kun, my old friend, great teacher of our youth, the best mission clerk there ever was, the only one I can turn to in my hour of need... our savior and hero..."

"What do you WANT Genma!" Iruka snapped at his long time friend.

"We need a huuuge favor Iruka-Chan. You see our mission partner didn't show up so we're one person short on a very crucial mission." Genma leaned in front of Iruka successfully blocking all of his papers.

"I'm kind of busy right now. I'll help you find someone later if you still need it." Iruka tried to pry his papers out from under Genma's elbow.

"No need we've already found someone to go with us." Genma grinned.

"Then why, pray tell, are you bothering me about it." Iruka now tried to get the papers that were behind Genma but said person leaned over, blocking his way to them.

"Because.. You're the one who's coming." And with that Genma grabbed Iruka's arm and pulled him towards the gate. Dragging Iruka was considerably easier than dragging Kakashi.

"WHAT! Wait.. Genma! I'm busy.. the papers.." Iruka tried to pry his arm out of the steel grip that was now holding it.

"Izumo and Kotetsu will take care of it. Right now you need to come with me and Kakashi on a five day mission." Genma pulled harder.

"Kakashi! Five days!" Iruka blushed and tried to pull harder in the other direction. "Are you sure this is a good idea, don't you need someone with more experience." Iruka tried digging his heels in the dirt but that only resulted in Genma being able to pull him even faster and a lot of gravel in his shoes.

"Nope, no need. It's a pretty easy mission, we just need 3 people to do it."

"Well I guess I could.." Iruka finally caved.

"Great! Your a lifesaver." Genma had just succeeded in pulling Iruka over to Kakashi. "Hey, Iruka's coming with us so we're ready to go." Kakashi's eye momentarily lit up with panic but then snapped back to it's lazy self.

"Alright. Now I'll have something more _interesting_ to look at while I run _behind_ you." Kakashi winked at Iruka before he turned around and wondered if he had something big enough to stuff in his huge mouth.

**.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.**

Izumo and Kotetsu watched as their friend was literally dragged through the big gates.

"What the hell was that all about?" Izumo turned to his partner with a slightly dazed look on his face.

"Well you see." Kotetsu began matter of factly. "The three of them are going to... How the hell should I know!" He snapped. "We've got more important stuff to do than worrying about why our friend just got kidnapped by fellow shinobi. Here! You take this pile and I'll start working on this one."

"Wish I'd been the one kidnapped, then I wouldn't have to go over these papers." Izumo grumbled before he started on his pile.

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**Step 2:** To _shanghai target 1 and 2 somewhere far, far away._ **(1**

Genma made his way into the woods with his two mission partners fast on his heels. He was up front and Kakashi was at the rear making Iruka the middle man. That way he would be protected if anything bad happened. Not that Genma was expecting anything bad to happen on a bogus mission but you could never be too careful when you went outside the village. Ninjas were always targeted by someone when they were out of their territory. Plus he was the only one who knew the mission was a hoax and he really wanted to keep it that way, which meant he had to treat this just like a normal mission for now.

Once they were deep into the forest Genma stopped to finally brief his two teammates on the mission. The only thing they did know at the moment was that it needed three men to complete.

"Alright." Genma said as he turned to Kakashi and Iruka. "Here's the deal. There's a hot spring resort in the east mountains we need to get to. There's been no news from there for quite some time and the neighbors are afraid that somethings happened to the proprietors. It's quite close to the borders so there's a possibility that it's been raided by enemy ninjas."

"Why would enemy ninjas want to take over a hot spring resort?" Iruka asked confused.

"Maybe they were dirty enemy ninjas who knows." Genma coughed and then pressed on. "Anyway, that's our mission so we better..."

"Shouldn't this be a d-rank mission?" Kakashi interrupted. "With the shortage of ninjas in the village it seems like a huge waist to send two Jounins and a Chuunin to check out something like that."

"Hey! I didn't choose this mission ok. The Hokage ordered us to do this so we're doing it. Now can we go on with the mission planning?" Genma tried to sound annoyed but deep down he was extremely nervous. Iruka was a teacher, a very good teacher, and as such he instinctively knew if someone was about to do something bad, even before the prankster himself knew he was going to do something. He could also see a lie coming from miles away since he had to deal with them every day of his life, and had used most of them himself when he was at school. Kakashi was a genius who used to be in Anbu. He pretty much had an inbuilt lie detector in his scull and was suspicious of basically everything. Genma could still remember when he'd spent about a month grumbling about an enemy spy in one of Iruka's classes. So lying to those two was like going through a minefield blindfolded on a pogo stick, one wrong move and it would all be over.

"Now the plan is like this. Two of us will have to dress in civilian clothing and walk on the main trail to the springs, it's quite remote so there isn't exactly a road there, and one of us will take all the supplies and stealthily follow the other two. Since I'm the long range expert here and Kakashi is quite good at taijutsu and ninjutsu, and therefore doesn't need any weapons, I suggest I take the supplies and follow you guys. That way if anything happens I can back you up from my cover if you need it." Genma waited anxiously for his targets replies and was immensely relieved when both of them agreed. Being trusted by both of them certainly had it's benefits.

"Alright that's good." Kakashi droned from behind his book.

"Yeah that's fine." Iruka remarked.

Genma was glad to see that neither of them was showing any signs of idiotic love sickness. They were both good ninjas and apparently their professional side had taken over, although there was no telling how long that would last.

After Iruka and Kakashi had changed into the clothes Genma had brought he took all of their weapons and bags along with their uniforms and stuffed them in his backpack, he only let them keep one backpack to keep food and water in.

"Alright what you have to do now is travel east until you come to a fork in the road. One of them leads to a village and the other eventually changes into the trail you have to follow to get to the resort. I'll be following close behind you but I'll be masking my presence so you might not sense me. For safety reasons I won't be camping with you on the way but you have everything you need so it doesn't matter. If you're all ready I suggest we head out."

"Alright." Kakashi started walking down the road. "You heard the man, let's go Iruka."

"Ah.. Hai." Iruka ran a few steps to catch up with Kakashi and then walked next to him.

"Perfect." Genma waited for both of them to be out of view before he spun around and headed back home to Konoha with all their supplies. The weapons, the scrolls, the maps. Kakashi's Itcha Itcha, which he'd left in his weapons pouch.

Genma had a nagging feeling in the back of his head which was telling him this might not be such a good idea but he decided to ignore it.

Surely getting lost in the eastern forest for a few days would bring the two closer together.. right?

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**(1. **_**To**__**shanghai**_ - I looked into this and it seems the American (or at least foreign) meaning of this is to kidnap someone. Where I come from Shanghaiing someone means leaving him somewhere in the middle of no-where with nothing but the clothes he's wearing.. or not if you want to be extra mean.. which means no cellphones, no maps, no nothing to get you back home except your own two feet.


	7. Day 1

**Updates could go veeeerrrrryy slowly from now on since I have a rather stressful time at school right now... although I might go into denial and write another chapter for one of my stories to pretend that I'm not actually in school and should not currently be working myself into a heart attack over all the things I have to finish... If you never hear from me again I'll probably be in a happy place where people in white coats make sure I get my dayly dose of happiness in the form of pills.**

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**Day 1**

Kakashi:

Itcha Itcha pages read: 108

Wrong thing said: Perverted.

Current mood: Day dreaming

Iruka.

Blushes: Around 50, give or take a few.

Outbursts: Justifiable.

Current mood: Self conscious

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Kakashi and Iruka were making their way down the main road. It was around early evening and they'd made pretty good progress on their journey, they should reach the fork in the road Genma was talking about around mid afternoon tomorrow if everything went according to plan. The walk so far had been mostly uneventful, not much talking except the occasional chit chat like "Do you want to take a break?" "Should we stop here for a little snack?" "The weather sure is nice today" and "NOOOO! I forgot my book in my weapon pouch!" That last one was followed by a slight argument where Kakashi wanted to hunt down Genma and Iruka didn't want to jeopardize a mission for a perverted book. Iruka had won the argument and there hadn't been much talking after that.

Kakashi looked over to his mission partner, looking him up and down for probably the hundredth time that day. Iruka was dressed in black pants that fit him perfectly, a white long sleeve t-shirt that stretched over his well toned muscles and a thick black vest. He'd kept his hair tied but it was a lot lower than he usually wore it. If Kakashi didn't know any better he'd think Genma dressed Iruka like that just to torture him. He'd been trying all day to not think about those gorgeous legs, that perfectly sculpted ass and how good it would feel to run his hand all over that muscular upper torso. Kakashi swore that he'd personally make sure Iruka wore nothing but baggy clothing for the rest of his life when they got back from that mission. Absolutely no one was allowed to see just what Iruka had been hiding under his uniform up until now.

Iruka glanced up just in time to see Kakashi turn to look up at the sky with boredom in his eyes. Iruka kept having the feeling that he was being stared at but every time he looked at Kakashi the man was looking at something else uninterestingly. Iruka hoped that what he was feeling was just Genma looking out for them, if not then he was going crazy. He'd had the same feeling for a couple of months earlier that year. Iruka used the opportunity while Kakashi was looking elsewhere to admire the man. Kakashi was wearing loose navy blue pants and a dark green hoodie **(1** Instead of his headband he was wearing a simple black eye-patch and, much to Iruka's disappointment, he'd insisted on covering the lower part of his face with some bandages even though Genma and Iruka had both been against it. Although he wasn't wearing form fitting clothes Iruka couldn't stop from blushing at the thought of the lean body hidden underneath them. Iruka always did have an active imagination and his mind was doing a very good job of supplying him with images of how Kakashi would look without the clothes. Iruka blushed even deeper and hoped he wasn't turning into a pervert.

Suddenly Kakashi looked at him and their eyes met for a brief moment before they both looked back at the road.

"..." Kakashi opened his mouth to say something.

"..." Iruka began at the same time.

"Uhm. You were going to say something?"

"Oh no, gomen Kakashi. You go first." Iruka scratched the scar on his nose nervously.

"I was just going to ask if you were hot or needed a break. You seem awfully flustered."

Iruka blushed even more and hoped Kakashi was not good at reading minds. Which he probably was since he was ex anbu. "Ah ah.. N-no I'm fine thank you."

"If you say so. But if you really are hot you could take some of those clothes off, I wouldn't mind."

Iruka looked at Kakashi with a blank look on his face. "Uhm. There's no need I'm quite fine.

"Are you sure? It's no problem you can just take the sweater off and put it in the back pack."

"No, I'm really all right!"

"I'm just saying.."

"I'M NOT STRIPPING!" Iruka snapped. "Kami would you get a grip, can't you go one day without some kind of pervertedness!" Iruka put his hands in his pockets and marched on.

Kakashi paused momentarily, he hadn't meant to sound perverted. But then again he had been casually asking the guy to take his clothes off. He started jogging to catch up to his mission partner.

"I was just trying to be nice. You really did look like you were too hot."

"I'm not hot!" Iruka ground out.

"Well should we take a break then. Are you tired?"

"No I'm fine" Iruka started walking faster.

"Then what is it? If your not hot or exhausted then why are you so red?" Kakashi quickened his pace as well.

"No reason, just drop it."

"You usually don't blush for no reason." Kakashi was grinning slightly. Iruka was hiding something and finding out what was going to be fun. Teasing Iruka was always fun.

"I'm not blushing." Iruka's face decided to betray him and blush even more.

"Looks like it to me." Kakashi sang.

"JUST DROP IT!"

"Jeez Iruka I know I'm hot but you really shouldn't let it affect you so much."

Iruka froze. His face felt like it was going to spontaneously combust. He wished it would, maybe then he'd just die and not have to try to worm his way out of this somehow.

"_Senseiiii_ I was just joking but damn." Kakashi started jogging backwards in front of Iruka. "You should have just said something you know, unlike you I don't mind stripping at all" Kakashi started pulling the bottom of his hoodie up.

"You HENTAI!" Iruka punched Kakashi in the face and marched on.

Kakashi finally realized why he was trying to stop teasing Iruka. It usually didn't end well. He decided to give his now fuming mission partner a little bit of space and walked ten steps behind him.

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After about 2 hours of silent walking Kakashi had had enough, he was going out of his mind with boredom. Usually he didn't care much for conversation or company and would just read his book but seeing as he didn't have said book that wasn't exactly an option at the moment. He jogged up to Iruka again hoping that the 2 hours had improved his mood.

"I think we should stop now and set up camp so we can plan out tomorrow."

Iruka gave him a slight glare before replying. "Alright, I guess that would be best." He then lead the way off the road and into the woods completely missing the kicked-puppy look on Kakashi's face.

They found a small clearing that seemed safe enough to set up camp in and started getting their things ready. Iruka started collecting a few branches to set up the fire for their dinner and Kakashi started setting up the tent. After Kakashi had gotten the tent up he started looking for their blankets, he found one easily in the backpack but no matter how thoroughly he searched he couldn't find the other one. He scratched his head in frustration and ambled over to Iruka who'd started cooking their dinner.

"Maah.. Iruka. Where's the blanket?"

Iruka glanced over at his partner, his look going from slightly embarrassed to slightly annoyed in 0.2 seconds. "Well I dunno, have you tried looking for it IN YOUR HANDS!"

Kakashi took a moment to decide if he should ignore the cuter than kitten outburst or retaliate. He quickly came to the conclusion that in a battle of sarcasm he'd probably come out on top so he replied with.

"Ooohh so _that's_ what this is, I thought it was a handkerchief. You know, in case you got scared and started crying."

Iruka now went from slightly annoyed to offended in 0.3 seconds. "Well that figures. You've probably never seen a handkerchief before since you probably just wipe it on your mask."

Kakashi decided to switch tactics now, offended Iruka usually turned into Pissed Off Iruka and he didn't really want to go there again.

"Well what ever." He smirked. "All I'm trying to say is that if you haven't seen another blanket lying around here somewhere then you better get ready for one _hell_ of a night _sensei_ because you'll be sharing this one with me."

Kakashi was very pleased to see Iruka go from offended to blushing beat red when most of the blood in his body flowed to his head in 0.01 second.

They ate their dinner in silence, Iruka blushing more and more every time their eyes met and Kakashi grinning like a little kid who'd not only gotten away with stealing from the cookie jar but had also been able to steal their siblings candy and gotten said sibling scolded for something they had done too.

Oh yes! Kakashi's night was going fantastically well. That is up until he found out just why no one on Iruka's old genin team had wanted to share a blanket or even a tent with him after trying it once.

**(1 - A hooded sweatshirt**


	8. Day 2

**Right.. I've been thinking about this story a bit and to me it doesn't really fit into the timeline of the series anywhere (specially this chapter here), it's definitely after the chuunin exams but it feels a bit weird to me. **

**So... this just won't fit into the timeline of the series and you shouldn't try to make it fit anywhere. **

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**Day 2**

Kakashi.

Itcha Itcha pages read: 0

Wrong thing said: Offensive

Current mood: Confused

Iruka.

Blushes: Surprisingly not so many.

Outbursts: Within the acceptable quota.

Current mood: Oblivious.

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Kakashi had one hell of a night. Really, one hell of a night. A night that had him wondering what on earth he had ever done to anyone ever to deserve it. It had started of rather well. Iruka had been all blushing, innocent and uncomfortable which had been extremely cute, although rather uncomfortable for one particular pervert who hadn't had any release for his erotic thoughts for most of the day. But mostly it had been really cute, that is until Iruka finally fell asleep. Not only did Iruka take up a lot of space when he slept, i.e. if you came within a half a meter radius to him(which was quite hard in such a small tent) he'd beat the crap out of you, but he was a very ferocious blanket stealer as well. Kakashi had tried to get a little blanket back at first but decided against it when the Chuunin actually growled at him like some wild animal. Even Tsunade sama herself wouldn't stand a chance against him like that. Needless to say Kakashi had spent the rest of the night huddled up against the tent wall freezing, confused and quite frankly a little scared. Who knew the little blushing chuunin had such a frightening side to him.

Iruka felt surprisingly refreshed when he woke up the next day. The tent hadn't been as cramped as he first thought it would be and sharing a blanket with Kakashi hadn't been that uncomfortable. He'd thought that the jounin would surely use the opportunity to screw him.. with him.. screw with him.. Iruka blushed at that thought. He'd meant to say that Kakashi would use the opportunity to tease him... Iruka blushed harder, where on earth was his head this morning. Anyway it didn't look like Kakashi had done anything during the night, Iruka had even thought he'd woken up alone in the tent until he spotted Kakashi curled up in the corner appearing to be fast asleep. Well he knew the guy was pretty unsociable at times but not being able to sleep in the same tent as someone without trying to put as much distance as possible between them was a little bit weird in Iruka's point of view. He didn't think much about it though, Kakashi had always been a bit, if not a whole lot, quirky.

Iruka covered Kakashi with the blanket before he got out of the tent and started preparing breakfast. Kakashi was left pretending to be asleep, he hadn't really known how to face Iruka when the other guy woke up so he'd opted for the cowardly way out. Well at least the old Iruka appeared to be back judging by the blanket that was now covering him. Maybe he should mention something about this to Iruka later, they did have to share the tent for a few more nights... then again maybe he shouldn't, Iruka didn't seem to take his well meant criticism that well. Kakashi could still remember the time when he'd told the chuunin he'd look much more appealing if he wore his hair down, surprisingly Iruka had a mean left hook. He didn't even want to remember what had happened when he'd suggested Iruka read Itcha Itcha to relieve some of the stress he must be under. Granted it probably hadn't been the best idea to burst into his class just to tell him that but he'd honestly thought it would help the chuunin relax a bit.

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Genma was quite happy when he walked into Tsunade's office that morning. His plan was probably well on it's way to success by now even though not much time had passed. Surely working together would bring the two guys closer to each other and eventually give off the results he was hoping for. He was _not_ going to fail this mission. He smirked once he saw the Hokage glance at him over her paperwork. '_Finally some good news for her._'

"Ah, Genma-san sit down, sit down." If Genma didn't know any better he'd think the Fifth was a rabid yaoi fangirl. She looked a bit too interested in getting those two together. "So how's it coming along?"

Genma took a seat in front of the desk. "Well I don't know the exact details right now but I think I came up with the perfect plan." He twirled his senbon around a bit watching the Hokage's eyes fill with curiosity and excitement, he swore that if she was any less of a lady she's be bouncing up and down in her seat squealing for details.

"So what did you do this time?" Tsunade leaned forward eagerly.

"I sent them on a hike through the 'Maze'."

"The what?"

Genma smirked again. "Oh you haven't heard of it? I'm not surprised, not many people have. It's widely known by the locals there though. I only found it by accident on one of my missions when I..."

"On with it man!" The special jounin almost jumped by the loud interruption. They both knew it but they also both knew that Tsunade couldn't prove it so there was no way for her to tease him about it. The matter was dropped after Tsunade gave him a knowing look and Genma pretended he didn't have a clue what she was referring to.

"Well anyway, the 'Maze' is a forest in the east mountains that's known to get people lost. It looks innocent enough but once you're there you loose all sense of direction. Compasses won't work in it for some reason and it's surrounded by mountains that block out he sun so you can't get your bearings by looking at the sun's position. Besides that it's usually filled with fog so you can't even see the mountains in the distance for guidance, all you can see is trees and more trees."

"So let me get this straight." Tsunade interrupted again. "You took two of my best ninjas." The Hokage paused.

"Yep." Genma smirked.

"Sent them on a meaningless 5 day mission while there is actually a great shortage of ninjas in the village." Tsunade paused again.

"Aha."

"Where they will more likely than not get lost for who knows how long."

"Yeah." Genma wasn't sure where this was going now.

"In the hopes that they will work closely together in their hour of need and end up madly in love with each other?"

"That sounds like my plan yes." The senbon sucker looked a bit uneasy now.

"Great! That's an excellent plan. Let me know as soon as possible how it goes."

Genma quickly stood up. "Yes ma'am, I will." Somehow it didn't surprise him nearly as much as it should that the Fifth wasn't concerned about the safety of two of her ninjas. He was halfway out the door when the Hokage called after him.

"You do know that especially with those two this plan has about a 70 percent chance of blowing up and resulting in the exact opposite of what you were aiming for?"

Genma really did have a bad feeling about this.

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Kakashi and Iruka were making better progress than they had first expected, they should be reaching the fork in the road soon and it was only around 1 pm. Although their progress was mainly the result of Kakashi's lack of social skills and Iruka's big temper.

The morning had been pretty uneventful after they'd woken up. Iruka had made breakfast while Kakashi packed their stuff. They'd eaten in somewhat of an awkward silence. Iruka had kept glancing at his partner who seemed to either be looking at everything but him or looking at him with a kind of confused look, which had seemed a bit weird. Surely if anyone should feel uncomfortable after sleeping so closely together then it should be Iruka himself. Of course he had no idea of just what Kakashi had experienced that night.

Kakashi on the other hand was having some strange thoughts. Most of his free time that was not spent on reading Itcha Itcha, and sometimes even while he was reading it, had been spent fantasizing about a sweet little chuunin warming his bed, clinging to him, cuddling him and if not doing kinky things then at least acting all lovey dovey. He'd certainly not imagined being punched, kicked and growled at... well maybe growled at in a sexy little way but that had not been the case. He was still deathly attracted to the guy but this side of Iruka might pose a bit of a problem when Kakashi finally got that suntanned god into his bed... because you see, he had a rather small bed and he didn't exactly want to be kicked out of it repeatedly. Maybe he should buy a bigger bed...

The fight had started shortly before noon. They had been walking in silence for most of the way, only talking occasionally about the mission or trivial little things. Kakashi noticed that Iruka seemed quite content with not talking which was true for the most part, Iruka really did like just spending some quiet time either alone or in good company after having to shout at his students almost constantly... or shout at stupid ninjas who didn't hand in their mission reports or handed in reports that looked like it had not only been eaten by the owners dog but also thrown up again by said creature, dragged through the mud, used as a handkerchief and then finally smudged up in a vain attempt to make it look fairly representable, which it never was, before it was finally handed in. A certain silver haired jounin and a few Inuzuka clan members came to mind.

Therefore Kakashi tried not to disturb the chuunin all that much but it had gotten harder and harder for him to do. Kakashi didn't read Itcha Itcha only for the entertainment of it, he also used it to keep his mind off of other matters. He'd never been good at talking with people so he had a lot of unresolved personal issues floating back and forth through his mind which he preferred to ignore. So after spending about an hour counting trees he decided to try talking to Iruka again. Because surely if he wanted the chuunin to fall into his arms any time soon some type of interaction would have to take place at some point. The guy didn't seem inclined to just throw himself at him like other people had done in the past. Something that would have made Kakashi's life so much less complicated in his opinion.

And so Kakashi had turned to his mission partner and brainstormed just what he should talk to the guy about.

"So how's Naruto doing these days?" He patted himself mentally on the back, Naruto should be a safe topic to discuss with the man.

Iruka looked at him like he was confused about something.

"Uhm, he's fine I guess." The chuunin replied.

"That's good... so you think he's coming along well?"

"Yeah he seems to be improving quite well."

Kakashi cheered up a bit. Talking to Iruka didn't seem so hard after all, they were having a pleasant conversation for once.

"Eh.. Sorry I didn't hear you?" Iruka had just said something while Kakashi was giving himself a mental pep talk.

"I said shouldn't you know all this a lot better than me? You are his sensei after all."

Kakashi froze for a moment. He tried desperately to find a good response to that statement while Iruka looked at him like he thought the jounin was actually losing his mind. Before Kakashi could come up with a perfect idea his mouth decided to work on it's own.

"Well yeah, I just wanted to know what you think. You're an important person to him so your opinion matters quite a lot." He mentally sighed in relief when he saw Iruka cheer up at that. Just keep this up and things should go smoothly. "I mean you do practically act like his mother..." Naturally things just couldn't go the way Kakashi wanted them to. Could he honestly not have _one_ conversation where he did not end up plunging a kunai through his own foot.

"Right, I see." Iruka said with an offended look.

"No you see.. what I meant to say is that you really do care for him like a mother.. I mean a father.. a _father_ would care for it's child." Iruka didn't look so convinced to him. "You obviously have a lot of moth.. _fatherly_ instincts since you care so much about your students. I mean normally teachers don't treat just one student so kindly.."

"So you think I discriminate between my students?" Iruka snapped.

"NO, I.. I just mean normal teachers.."

"Oh so I'm not normal then?" Kakashi watched the vein on Iruka's forehead grow bigger.

"Yes.. I mean no! No, you're completely normal.. nothing outstanding about you at all." Kakashi actually wished he had stabbed himself in the foot with a kunai, it would certainly be less painful than this.

"Well that's _great_ to know Hatake-_san_. At least I can always use my _motherly _instincts to teach since I'm to _insignificant_ to actually qualify as an _equal_ ninja as you geniuses." Iruka started marching faster as he spoke and soon Kakashi had to jog behind his steaming partner to keep up.

"I never said..." Kakashi was cut off when Iruka stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and all but growled in his face.

"Not another word! I swear one more syllable out of you and you'll end up six feet under and I'll end up in the bingo book. Is.. That.. Clear!" The last part was ground out between the chuunins clenched teeth, each word emphasized by sharp poking to Kakashi's chest.

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Iruka had cooled down considerably since Kakashi's strange attempt at conversation. He didn't know what the other guy was thinking most of the time, if he wanted to insult him or pick on him so much then why on earth did he sometime look so surprised when he got mad. Usually he could swear the guy got some kind of perverted pleasure out of seeing him pissed off but lately the guy had started acting like he didn't understand what on earth he'd done to upset him in the first place. Iruka would like to think that maybe the jounin actually did have an ounce of guilt over what he was doing but he highly doubted it. If he really did feel guilty about it he could just stop offending him in the first place. Iruka still couldn't help loving the damn jerk, he was beginning to think he was turning into a masochist, the guy looked sexier than hell even when he was sprouting stupid insults. Half the time Iruka wasn't even pissed off at Kakashi for saying something mean, what he said earlier hadn't really been meant to be offensive, Iruka knew that, it had just come out all wrong. Half of the time Iruka was just pissed off at himself for actually thinking about throwing his morals to the dogs, drop kicking the jounin and molesting him on the spot even when he was being a jerk.

When they finally reached the fork Iruka looked back at his partner and decided he should try to smooth things over at least a little bit with the guy. He might have over reacted just a little bit earlier and the guy had been giving him a bit of a space since then. The guy had been walking at least ten steps behind him carrying their supplies all by himself like one of his nin dogs obediently following it's master. He'd looked bored to tears, which must really mean that he was going insane with boredom at that point since Kakashi never looked anything but tired, when he was lazying about town, or happy, when he was reading his book or goofing around.

"So..." Iruka commented off handedly. "Naruto really is doing fine is he?"

Kakashi was by his side in a second flat looking like he'd talk to Iruka about how the guy arranged his sock drawer just as long as they were talking. Soon the look was gone though and Kakashi was back to his old lazy self. Iruka was kind of surprised but happy to find he was beginning to be able to read Kakashi's moods.

"Yeah he is. He's improving day by day. It looks like he'll be quite good in the future."

"That's good to hear. How are the others?"

"Oh their fine as well. Sakura is showing a lot of potential with chakra focusing and Sasuke is.. well Sasuke. He's always been quite good and he's getting better as well although his attitude could use a bit of fine tuning. Well actually all of their attitudes could use a little fine tuning..." Kakashi stopped and looked a bit uneasily at Iruka, he didn't know if what he'd said would offend the guy.

"How so?" Iruka didn't sound offended.

"Well.. Sasuke thinks he's a lot better than the others and that he doesn't need them at all.. and he gets really frustrated if the others show signs of improving over him. Sakura doesn't believe in herself well enough and focuses most of her energy on chasing Sasuke and trying to improve to impress him instead of for the sake of improving herself, Sasuke of course doesn't acknowledge her at all so instead of feeling happy about the improvements she really _is_ making she keeps focusing on the improvements she's not making. Naruto has a similar problem. He wants Sasuke to acknowledge his strength and he wants to impress Sakura but both of them are to caught up in their own things to see it which often results in Naruto letting his impulsiveness and need for attention rule his judgment."

Kakashi glanced over at his partner. Iruka was looking at him thoughtfully but he couldn't feel any kind of negative meaning in it. He scratched the back of his head absent mindedly.

"Well, that's just my opinion anyway. I could be wrong, I haven't exactly been the best sensei so far."

"No no, I think you're absolutely right about them. And if you know all that it means you really have been paying attention to them and thinking about what to do to better the situation. Just because things aren't all perfect doesn't mean your not doing your job as a Sensei properly."

Iruka and Kakashi were now making their way along the trail that should lead them to the hot springs. Genma had been right when he said there wasn't a road leading to the place, the trail was rather small and it was getting smaller as they got further inside the forest. They were hiking uphill at the moment, the trail appeared to lead into a valley surrounded by high mountains. An eerie fog could be seen in the distance, hopefully it would be gone by the time the got to that point.

"You think so?" Kakashi asked Iruka.

"Yeah, I do. I think I have a little more experience than you when it comes to teaching.. this is the first time you've had students isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah the Third told me about that. Anyway, as teachers we do the best we can to teach our students and prepare them as best as we can for the future. Sometimes we succeed and sometimes we don't but we can't, and shouldn't, always blame ourself for it. If you tell a class 10 times to not run with their kunai there is bound to be at least one or two kids who still do and end up hurting themselves. As a teacher you want to be able to say you could have prevented it but the truth is it really was the kids fault for not listening in the first place. You get my meaning?" Iruka looked at his partner waiting for a reply.

"I think so."

"All I'm trying to say is that even though your team has problems it's not necessarily your fault. It's a four man team, including you, with four different people with four different backgrounds, lives and experiences. There are bound to be problems along the way but as long as it all works out in the end then it's all good in my opinion. I'd say you must be a great teacher to be able to make those three function as a team at all, let alone get them as far as you've gotten them."

Kakashi surprised Iruka by giving him a warm smile. He'd never seen Kakashi smile like that, it was breathtaking.. and that was saying a lot seeing as how he only had one visible eye showing.

"Thank you, that means a lot coming from a good teacher like you."

Iruka blushed beat red at that.

"Well.. it's just something I think.. I'm nothing compared to you I'm sure." Iruka rubbed his scar self consciously.

"Actually this is one of the things you're a whole lot better than me at. One of the few things they actually can agree on is that you were a great teacher."

Iruka blushed more at that, he certainly wasn't used to hearing compliments from Kakashi and hearing that his old students thought so highly of him made him really happy. Not really knowing what to say after that but still wanting to keep the conversation going he asked the first thing that came to his mind.

"So what are the other things I'm better than you at?"

Kakashi gave a little smirk before he replied. "Well.. you do look a whole lot cuter than me when you blush.." He was cut off by a soft punch on the shoulder. To his surprise he looked over to see Iruka laughing silently.

"Well of course, I've had _years_ of experience in it and you can't really see the blush properly when you cover three fourths of your face with cloth."

The rest of the day was actually spent in an almost friendly way. Kakashi did have a few awkward moments but Iruka seemed to care less and less about it which made the jounin relax more around the younger man.

It wasn't until after they had set up camp and were about to go to sleep that Kakashi remembered the night before. Seeing as how they were finally getting along well Kakashi decided not to mention anything about it to Iruka.. maybe he had just acted like that because he wasn't used to sleeping near Kakashi and tonight would be different.

He could always hope.


End file.
